In 10-15 years people will be travelling to moon: Naveen Jain, Co-founder of Moon Express

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Updated: Sep 04, 2016, 12.30 PM IST

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Indian entrepreneurs can go to the moon or do whatever they want, but capital flows where there are opportunities.

In Naveen Jain's vision, the moon in 'honeymoon' might be a real possibility for some jetsetters one day. "I reckon that in 10-15 years, people will be travelling to the moon," he says in a telephone conversation from the US on August 11.

The 56-year-old American is the co-founder of Moon Express, a space company that he established with Bob Richards (a space entrepreneur) and Barney Pell (a former NASA scientist) in 2010. In early August, Moon Express announced it had become the first private enterprise to receive regulatory approval from the US government to send a robotic lander to the moon in 2017. The company is also one of the 16 teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, which will award $20 million to the first venture to get to the moon.

Jain, who lives in Seattle a few houses away from Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, is a zealous optimist about the lunar mission and its far-reaching impact, stressing repeatedly that dwindling resources on Earth wouldn't worry us so much if we had elsewhere in our solar system to look. "When people start to believe things are in abundance, no one fights over them. The scarcity exists only if you believe we can't exist anywhere else."

Excerpts from the interview:

What does this regulatory nod mean for your company?In basic terms, the approval means that the government ensures that any private group travelling to the moon won't pollute its atmosphere or the Earth's habitat and interfere with any other mission. Symbolically, it means that when we land on the moon, we will have achieved a feat that was previously achieved by three superpowers (America, Russia and China). Superpowers of the future are not going to be countries, but entrepreneurs who achieve the impossible.

What is the moon's business potential?Moon Express is going to the moon precisely because it's good business.We can mine gold, platinum and rare earth elements. The moon has Helium 3, a clean source of energy. It has water and for the space economy, water is crucial. We could create fuelling stations in the moon's orbit or earth's orbit for rockets. Carrying rocket fuel is expensive and doing so will significantly reduce the cost of space travel.

Even something more simple like a moon rock has tremendous value if it's brought back to Earth. It could be viewed as a symbol of love. Everyone gives someone a diamond. In the future, if you love someone enough, you might literally buy them the moon.

What do you think of the Indian group -Team Indus -that is also vying for the Google Lunar X Prize?I like the Indian team. But this is a tough business, which requires a lot of capital. They have three months to raise adequate funding and we know how difficult it is to do that. I wish them well in their mission. I think Indian entrepreneurs can go to the moon or do whatever they want. But capital flows where there are opportunities.In India, dreaming big can be a challenge and the question is, do people have a track record of making impos sible things happen?

How much will your own mission cost?Our marginal cost of go ing to the moon is under $10 million. We are spend ing another $ 40 million on R&D, but that can be viewed, potentially, as a one-time expense. We estimate the total cost, from inception to the landing, at $50 million. Going forward though, our cost will be under $10 million.

Who are the most visionary entrepreneurs, in your opinion?Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. These guys are creating the future. In Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Moon Express is based, we are flanked by SpaceX (Musk's venture) on one side and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin on the other. That's a good neighbourhood (laughs). Successful entrepreneurs must have a God-complex. They don't believe they have failed because they don't give up. In because they don't give up. I Silicon Valley, when your company fails, people are like, "All right, you've had some arrows in your back, so now you know how to go build your next company." If you look at history, every successful company goes through a 'near-death experience'. If you can't survive it, then you can't make it.

Owning the lunar bountyWhile no country can stake lawful claim to the moon thanks to an international treaty signed in 1967, the US government has enacted a recent law that gives private entities the right to own what they find there. "What we bring back from the moon, we get to own it," says Jain. "Think of the moon as Earth's eighth continent or like international waters where oil or shipping companies can drill or fish."

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